When You're Good at What You Do

When I worked part time at Universal I started to notice that I was always being scheduled to close.  When I "casually" mentioned this to my team lead she said, "that's because they know when you close everything will be done and be done well." Wait...What? That did not seem fair.  

But, it seems to be the prevailing theme in my life lately and, being only human, it sometimes proves too much of a burden for me to bear.  I've been at Huntington Learning Center for about 8 months now and I really do like it.  It is the perfect second job for me because the hours are great.  However, the way they schedule the employees is a bit unusual.  They wait to see when their clients sign up for tutor times and then will schedule the employees to cover those times.  A child might come in for six tutoring sessions and have six different tutors over the course of those sessions.  I have some kids that I work with more than others but there are just as many kids that I have only worked with one or two times.  You just never know who you will be working with until you come in for your shift.

However, the past two months, I have been scheduled with the same child EVERY! SINGLE! TIME! I have worked and it just happens to be the most difficult child the center has!  As I put it to my managers, "we get the work done but it takes every trick in my book of tricks to get there."  I don't mind this once in a while but to have to put that much effort in every single time I work was getting to be too much for me.  It all led to a big meltdown last week on Saturday when I showed up to find out that not only had they scheduled me to work 10:00-2:00 (when my availability was only till noon) BUT I also was scheduled to work with the two most difficult students back to back!!!!  

I cried right there!  I feel like, once again, I am being penalized for being good at what I do!  The boss pulled me in his office and acknowledged that it was true...that there only 3 people that can work with this student and I was one of them.  However, because they are amazing people, they have agreed to back off a bit and give me "easier" students to work with during the week. On Saturdays, I'll still be working with my "special snowflake".  

Of course, I jump over one hurdle only to be faced immediately with another.  On Friday morning I had a student join my class.  It was a transfer from within the school because she evidently is hard to handle! And why my class particularly?  I already had 16 students (now 17) when the other 2nd grades only have 15.  Here we go again...I can hear the mantra..."we'll just give 'em to Judy...she can handle it."  

I have no choice - I have to handle it.